Inequality and social exclusion
(Sota) - ua
2019 - 2020
POWERPOINTS + LESNOTITIES
2300PSWUON
Bea Cantillon – Stijn Oosterlynckx
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Inhoud
On social exclusion, inequality and poverty .............................................................................................. 0
Exam........................................................................................................................................................ 5
SOTA 1: On social exclusion, inequality and poverty: a conceptual exploration (27/09) ............................ 5
1.0 Literature ........................................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 A conceptual exploration ................................................................................................................... 5
History of a concept ............................................................................................................................. 5
A polysemic concept ............................................................................................................................ 6
Three paradigms (see required literature lecture 1: Hilary Silver) ......................................................... 6
Solidarity paradigm .............................................................................................................................. 6
Specialisation paradigm ....................................................................................................................... 7
Monopoly paradigm (= exam question potential) ................................................................................. 7
Defining social exclusion (Vranken, 2001)............................................................................................. 7
From social difference to exclusion ...................................................................................................... 8
Fault lines ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Social differentiation ............................................................................................................................ 8
Social fragmentation ............................................................................................................................ 8
Social inequality ................................................................................................................................... 8
Social exclusion .................................................................................................................................... 9
1.2 Poverty .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Six perspectives on poverty .................................................................................................................. 9
Anti-poverty policy (Ravallion, 2013) .................................................................................................. 10
Before the Poverty Enlightenment ..................................................................................................... 10
First Poverty Enlightenment ............................................................................................................... 11
Second poverty Enlightenment .......................................................................................................... 12
SOTA 2: (4/10) : Poverty Reduction in Rich Countries The Grand Story ................................................... 13
2.0. Literature ........................................................................................................................................ 13
2.1. The founding father’s dream ........................................................................................................... 13
Founding Father’s .............................................................................................................................. 13
DEFINITION OF POVERTY: relative income poverty ............................................................................. 14
2.2. Disappointing poverty trends .......................................................................................................... 15
The U-Curve ....................................................................................................................................... 15
The Elephant curve: world wide perspective ...................................................................................... 16
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Inequality in the welfare state ............................................................................................................ 17
Poverty increase ................................................................................................................................ 17
2.3. Why ?.............................................................................................................................................. 18
Two perspectives: half empty or half full ............................................................................................ 18
Why? Reasons.................................................................................................................................... 19
Running harder to stand still .............................................................................................................. 20
The crack in the policy paradigm ........................................................................................................ 22
The glass ceiling of minimum incomes................................................................................................ 23
2.4. Social Fabrics at work ...................................................................................................................... 23
What we need and what we already have .......................................................................................... 23
2.5. The ecological revolution ................................................................................................................ 24
2.6. What can be done ? ........................................................................................................................ 25
Decent Incomes for all : how to get there ? ........................................................................................ 25
SOTA 3: Urban Poverty .......................................................................................................................... 26
3.0 Literature ......................................................................................................................................... 26
3.1 The global city: between competitiveness and social cohesion ......................................................... 26
On words: cohesion and competitiveness .......................................................................................... 26
The globalization of cities ................................................................................................................... 26
Hierarchy of world cities .................................................................................................................... 27
Making the global city ....................................................................................................................... 28
The socio-economic structure of global cities ..................................................................................... 28
3.2 New Urban poverty, segregation and neighbourhood effects ........................................................... 31
New Urban Poverty ............................................................................................................................ 31
Segregation........................................................................................................................................ 32
3.3 Gentrification and social mix ............................................................................................................ 33
SOTA 4: The determinants of increasing inequalities: the grand story (18/10) ........................................ 35
4.0. Literature ........................................................................................................................................ 35
4.1 Rudy van Dam: The Evolution of the social situation and social protection in Belgium 2019 (FOD Sociale
Zekerheid) ............................................................................................................................................. 35
4.1.1 EU Governance cycle ................................................................................................................. 35
4.1.2 Europe 2020 target.................................................................................................................... 36
4.1.3 Employment .............................................................................................................................. 36
4.1.4 Income ...................................................................................................................................... 37
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4.1.5 Poverty...................................................................................................................................... 37
4.1.6 Social protection ....................................................................................................................... 37
4.1.7 Other dimensions ...................................................................................................................... 37
4.1.8 Some conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 38
SOTA 5: The cultural dimensions of poverty and wealth (25/10) ............................................................ 39
5.0 Literature ......................................................................................................................................... 39
5.1 Is there a culture of poverty? ........................................................................................................... 39
5.1.1 The culture of poverty thesis ..................................................................................................... 39
5.1.2 Socio-cultural dimensions of poverty ......................................................................................... 39
5.2 Reconsidering culture and poverty ................................................................................................... 41
5.2.1 Combining structuralist and culturalist explanations .................................................................. 41
5.2.3 Narratives of social mobility ...................................................................................................... 44
5.3 The daily life of the super-rich .......................................................................................................... 45
SOTA 6: Poverty and income adequacy: What can be learned from reference budgets ? (Tess Penne, 08/11)
.............................................................................................................................................................. 47
6.0 Literature ......................................................................................................................................... 47
6.1 Current approach in EU .................................................................................................................... 47
6.2 The at-risk-of-poverty threshold ....................................................................................................... 48
6.3 Reference budgets: what, why and how? ......................................................................................... 50
6.3.1 What is a reference budget?...................................................................................................... 50
6.3.2 How: Method ............................................................................................................................ 51
6.3.3 Why Reference Budgets (RBs) ................................................................................................... 53
6.4 Contextualising the at-risk-of-poverty threshold .............................................................................. 53
6.5 The adequacy of minimum income protection ................................................................................. 55
6.6 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 58
SOTA 7: Old and new policy paradigms : what can be done ? Solutions? (15/11) .................................... 59
7.0 Literature ......................................................................................................................................... 59
7.1 The post war consensus/paradigm ................................................................................................... 59
7.2 The Great Disappointment ............................................................................................................... 60
7.3 Why question? ................................................................................................................................. 64
7.3.1 Why? Functional adaptations .................................................................................................... 64
7.4 Paradigm shifts: 3 paradigms ........................................................................................................... 66
Social investment state: third way ...................................................................................................... 68
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Problems with third way .................................................................................................................... 68
7.5 What can be done? .......................................................................................................................... 69
7.6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 70
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Exam
Evaluation: oral exam
Everything mentioned in the lecture
Broad questions: understand and argue with the prof (they give you counterarguments)
Required reading
SOTA 1: On social exclusion, inequality and
poverty: a conceptual exploration (27/09)
1.0 Literature
Silver, H. (1994) Social exclusion and social solidarity: Three paradigms. International Labour Review 133,
531
Ravallion, M. (2013) The idea of antipoverty policy. Handbook of Income Distribution T. Atkinson and F.
Bourguignon. Amsterdam, Elsevier Science.
1.1 A conceptual exploration
History of a concept
Origins of concept in France in 1970s (highdays welfarestate – optimism, belief: no poverty left in
a couple of years): it is important to know the context to understand the meaning.
o used to refer to social categories unprotected by welfare state: some knew that the
optimistic idea wasn’t realistic (the sick-ones, the old-ones, people with disability,
divorced mothers (typical phenomena in 1970’s, more divorce, less income, less access to
income), young people who are lowskilled (70’s: low-skilled jobs to low wage countries)…
are categories that cannot easily become to work).
o = categories (heterogeneous) at risk (not paying contributions so no benefits when not at
work), outside protection system (welfare state assumed a standard family: mother-
father-abled…. But it were not assumptions for everybody)
o = despite the increasing welfare state, there are increasing categories that are not (fully)
part of it. exclusion (to draw attention/make it visible to this problem: policymakers
etc.)
o social insurance against predictable risks of ‘standard’ family (reciprocity), but some
people cannot contribute to it (so they cannot receive the benefits = not protected)
concept expanded and changed in response to social and political crises
o spread across Europe from late 1980s onwards (e.g. EU policy documents)
o they called it also social excluded persons (ex. young migrants rebelling in France Banlieu),
excluded from education/labour force)
To fully understand the concept you have to know the history
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A polysemic concept
polysemic = multiple meanings (ex. Slightly different in other decades, other countries…)
problem for comparison & measuring
… but also opportunity to learn about different ‘realities’ : helps us to understand the context, the
different social realities
informed by political ideologies and associated social science paradigms (big theories to
interpreted society), they have some affinity with some ideologies/paradigms (ex. Marx, Weber…)
source to capture complexity of actually existing social exclusion
Three paradigms (see required literature lecture 1: Hilary Silver)
exclusion refers to changing nature of social disadvantage: what is it that people are excluded
from?
exclusion from what? ... social order
o ex. This classroom as a social order
different modes of social integration:
o externally imposed (power): whole institution behand (you can be punished: police, war…)
despite the teacher is on his own, we don’t take his chair
prof can fail you for the exam
o voluntary interaction between individuals
interest in what the prof said
o national cultural and value consensus
we all share the value of respect (mutual respect), not interrupting whole the time
we don’t have to make them explicit (only if the value consensus is not there, you
have to mention it ex. ‘show respect please’)
o The three works together, but people have their preferences (some believe that when
everybody acts voluntary there will be order), it is complicate to say in which circumstance
which of the three above works the best).
o … identify different causes for social exclusion different paradigm
Solidarity paradigm
rooted in French Republican tradition: the way most French do
social integration through cultural boundaries and group solidarity
solidarity is social bond between society and individual nurtured through a collective conscience
(= Durkheim) and tied together through institutions
o take over the shared norms and values
o if people participate they automatically get the shared norms and values
state (Republic) promises citizens subsistence and right to work
in return citizens participate in work and public life
exclusion occurs when cultural bond breaks down and individuals are no longer morally integrated
in society’s institutions
o fear if the people ‘d no longer be part (integrated) in the society ( society breaking
down)
o in France everybody is part of the same society (no cultural subgroups) (<-> UK: more
differences)
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Specialisation paradigm
associated with Anglosaxon liberalism
social order network of voluntary exchange and association between autonomous individuals
with own interests
leads to specialised, interdependent and competing groups and social structures
o you can choose the group/club you want to be part from
o competing groups is fine (<-> France)
exclusion as discrimination; when group boundaries impede individual freedom to participate in
social exchanges
o when you are not allowed in a group / not allowed to leave the group
exclusion is individual process of ‘disaffiliation’ from social and economic networks
rights to social insurance legitimated on basis of contributions made during employment (social
liberalism – social contract), more pooling of risks
Monopoly paradigm (= exam question potential)
associated with social democracy: power imposed
social order coercive, imposed through hierarchical power relations
exclusion as result of ‘social closure’, when institutional and cultural boundaries not only keep
others out against their will but also serve to perpetuate inequality
o in society you have different groups, compete to resources, if there are many boundaries
to monopolies the resources inequality and exclusion appears
o ex. Dock workers Port of Antwerp: male, low-skilled, white (and that is weird, because a
lot of migrant people are low-skilled), because there is monopoly going on. You need to
have a certificate to work there (it is a day-to-day basis – if the number of certification is
high, the wage is low market segmentation, they keep the black out), perfectly legal
but exclusion
ex. labour market segmentation
if you talk about social exclusion, you have to mention all the three paradigms, your ideology
constitute your argumentation (more fan of monopoly…)
Defining social exclusion (Vranken, 2001)
from social difference to social exclusion: if we are all completely the same it is difficult to exclude
o some categories of social differences do not rise to exclusion: eyes color, wearing glasses
(it ‘d be very easy but it doesn’t happen)
o some are: skin color, income, education…
two general social processes:
o hierarchisation of social positions: putting differences in hierarchy
male above female, white above black, straight above gay
in eye color you cannot make a hierarchy
is it possible to make a hierarchy? It can lead to exclusion
o development of fault lines (segregation), creating boundaries
bathroom: public sphere: male/female (not in private)
administrative forms
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nightlife gaybars (self-segregation: choose it by thereself, but also to feel safe)
and … poverty
From social difference to exclusion
No Hierarchy Hierarchy
No fault lines Social differentiation Social inequality
Fault lines Social fragmentation Social exclusion
Poverty
Fault lines
fault lines are gaps or ‘sudden discontinuities’
different types of fault lines:
o social-relational fault lines, e.g. isolation from certain social networks
o social-economic fault lines, e.g. segmentation of labour markets
o spatial fault lines, e.g. ghetto’s, gated communities, low mobility, core-periphery
o institutional fault lines, e.g. lack of accessibility to certain institutions
o cultural fault lines, e.g. ethnic-cultural boundaries between groups
Social differentiation
No hierarchical ordering of social positions, no fault lines
infinite differentiation, most of which does not acquire socially significance
social differentiation does not automatically lead to social inequality
Social fragmentation
Non-hierarchical relations, but fault lines
Examples:
o ‘Genuine’ multicultural society’
o Polycentric city
o Subcultures
o Ex. Public Toilets: even clean
Social inequality
Hierarchical relations but no fault lines
Differential access to valued resources
o Women paid less than men for the same job
Main parameters: overall amount of inequality, rigidity, ascription (vs achievement) and
crystallization
